The industrial surroundings don't hint at the cozy interior with its high ceilings, well-placed but dim lighting, hand-made furniture and funky decorations.

It's been a long journey to here from there for co-owners Jason Houston and Sadye Rose W.

"We've been in this space for over 2 ½ years, and it's pretty much been me and Sadye (pronounced "Sadie") doing everything by ourselves," Houston said.

The venue is only open two days a week but it's earned a reputation among Longmont's artistic community as a cool place to practice their craft. A Jay Halsey photographic exhibit currently occupies one wall, and among the musicians who have played there are Bonnie and Taylor Sims from Bonnie & The Clydes and Denny Driscoll.

For the opening night of the Halsey's exhibit, close to 100 people attended over the course of the evening, said Sadye Rose, who uses the initial W. in lieu of her last name.

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"It was phenomenal," she said. "It was very well attended."

Sadye Rose is a Longmont native who met Houston in California. The couple thought about moving to Portland, Oregon to settle down but instead decided to come back to Longmont, where she had family and friends. Houston said he's come to be a big fan of Longmont.

"Longmont is really a fantastic place," he said.

The couple's dream of opening a distillery was a lengthy process, they said. Distilleries are regulated much more tightly than, for example, craft beer.

Opening required getting city, county, state, and federal permits, and they had to have a location before they could even apply for a license from the federal government. Because of city rules — which have since changed — they had to look in an industrial area because distilling is considered manufacturing, so after some searching they settled on their 2,200-square-foot warehouse space. The industrial surroundings don't bother them, they said, because the interior of the space offers enough room to do their distilling and have room for the tasting room. Curtains over the windows in the garage door let in a little light while giving the main room a sort of away-from-the-world, living room feel.

"We walked in here and, being the big blank empty white space that it was, saw we could easily build it out," Sadye Rose said.

And, she noted, Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy is right around the corner, and Grossen Bart Brewery will open this year just down the street.

Still Cellars' distilling equipment — a mash tun and two stills — sit near the back of the room. One still is for whiskey and the other for vodka.

"Everything goes through the whiskey still, and what doesn't become our whiskey or our brandies becomes vodka," Houston said.

The couple knew all along that they wanted to be completely organic, although that added to the length of time it took to get fully permitted, Houston said.

They claim that their whiskey barley is Colorado's first organic whiskey. Other spirits include vodka and their three brandies: apple "straightup," apple infused with ginger and apple infused with cinnamon.

They make all their own bitters, Houston said.

"What we do here is use what's fresh," he said. "For instance, mint is going crazy in the yards right now. We use what's fresh to concoct something."

Cocktails include the "frances sour," which features apple straightup, extra-dry vermouth, honey water, and fresh lemon and lime, garnished with fresh-cut apple; and the "lady bee lavender," which features vodka, lavender bitters, honey water, coconut water, and fresh lime, garnished with lavender flowers.

Bottles of Still Cellars' products are available at a few places, Houston said: PJ's Wine & Spirits and the Sun Rose Cafe in Longmont and Colterra restaurant in Niwot carry them. But given the size of their distilling operation they never expect to have widespread distribution, the couple said, and that's just fine with them.

"We're so small that we can't make that much," Sayde Rose said. "So our focus, business plan-wise, is to bring people here."

"We want to be that little hole in the wall, where you have to look for us to find us," Houston said.

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